Problems in the West
by CillaVade
Summary: Jade's got a sister, but will her exception into Hollywood Arts cause more trouble then it's worth?
1. Chapter 1: Together

Jade West and Beck Oliver were the "it couple" at Hollywood Arts. Everybody knew they were dating, including the principal who, ever since the re-auditions, rarely was seen in the company of students. (Vice Principal Dickers took care of most trivial things.)

They had won cutest couple two years in a row, partly because they were the best couple and partly because Jade terrified most people. Everybody knew that they would win the award again this year.

When they had first started dating however, it had been a different story. Nobody had thought they would last more than a month at the most. They were totally different. Jade was vicious and dark and loved weird and freaky things, and Beck was calm, down-to-earth, and into normal things like movies and football.

They also thought that Jade's jealous nature would eventually annoy Beck. Admittedly, most of the girls at Hollywood Arts had hoped that they would split quickly. Females didn't really want them to work out.

But it had worked out, and that's why two years later Beck and Jade were sitting together at lunch in a secluded corner of the Asphalt Café, giggling and smiling in that adorable young-romance fashion that would have made Jade sick if anyone else was doing it.

Right now, they weren't really keeping up a conversation, they were too preoccupied with other things. Mostly kissing, but they also were way to wrapped up in their own thoughts to pay much attention to the other, except for when their lips were locked.

Jade was thinking about the day they had met, which was also the day she started at Hollywood Arts freshman year. She had been walking into her first class, Beginner Classical Vocals when she saw him. He had been talking to the teacher when he caught sight of her. When they met eyes he was stunned into silence and lost his train of thought without any hope of finding it again.

She was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid eyes on. Even as a fourteen year old, he knew that she was the one. Before that moment, he had never believed in love at first sight. But she was the single most stunning thing in the world.

Jade however, found him incredibly annoying. She found it odd that he was staring at her like some foolish blind man seeing the sun for the first time. It sort of creeped her out, and not in the good way. He seemed like one of those popular, good-looking people (she had to acknowledge the fact that this guy was incredibly hot) that had made her life hell in middle school. He had that aura of fitting in that irritated her. She immediately hated him.

He couldn't be feeling more opposite. He walked away from the teacher, leaving him talking to the wall. He approached Jade, still looking like an idiotic blind man. But he was still confident, which instead of turning her on made him all the more undesirable to Jade.

"I'm Beck." he said coolly, the amazed look in his eyes all but gone. He held out his hand. She stared at it scathingly until he let it fall. Instead of being deterred however, he continued to talk to her.

"I assume you're a freshman, or else you wouldn't be in this class." he said. When she didn't answer, he tried again. "I'm a freshman, obviously. I came from another school a long ways away," (only later would she realize he meant Canada) "I was discovered in a youth summer theater program. I'm an actor."

In her mind, it surprised her that this guy was an actor. She had pegged him as some cocky singer who would soon be on the covers of second-rate teen magazines all over the country. He was here for the same thing she was. Instead of making her like him , it just made her hate him. This meant they would have to deal with each other more.

Present-time Jade laughed at this memory. Now she couldn't understand why she had hated him so much when they first met. She thanked whatever controlled love that he was persistent, otherwise right now she wouldn't be kissing the most amazing man in the universe.

In that first class, he had sat next to her and tried to pull a move more times then she could count. Once the bell rang, she tried for the rest of the day to avoid him. But to no avail; she had almost every class with him.

For a month, she maintained an antagonizing relationship with him. He would flirt with her, she would insult him, and he would flirt more. It was a never-ending circle, and secretly she had to admit she sort of liked it. On the outside though, she would never say it. Especially not to him.

Then one day in their Introduction to Improv class, she got a Saturday detention for calling a teacher a wazzbag. She actually was disappointed about it, because that weekend there was a Scissor Convention in town, so Beck got himself a Saturday detention as well by spray painting the word wazzbag on Sinjin's forehead.

She pretended to be outraged at having to spend 8 hours alone with Beck, but secretly she couldn't wait. When she showed up, she had no idea what was going to happen. What did end up happening was Beck flirted with her the entire class. She acted totally annoyed, which she sort of was, but not at him.

She was annoyed at herself for liking his flirting. Finally she yelled at him, "Oh my gosh what is your problem?" Instead of responding, he approached her, held her face gently, and kissed her softly. It was short, but she felt an overwhelming desire for more.

She kissed him back, and when they finally pulled away, he smiled at her. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to do that." he said. She smiled in spite of herself, and future-Jade turned to Beck and kissed him. He smiled at her when they pulled away and put his forehead against her.

"I love you." he told her, stroking her cheek. She closed her eyes at the feeling of bliss she got when she was with Beck. He made her feel alive, and those walls she had worked so hard to keep up fell away at just the sight of Beck. She relished the way she could be different when he was around, she could just be herself.


	2. Chapter 2: Acceptance

Beck was feeling guilty. He didn't know what to do. He had just figured out something that Jade should know, but he didn't want to tell her. He was sure she'd be mad. Besides, he shouldn't know in the first place. It was something Jade should have told him about, not something he found out on accident.

He had been picking Jade up for their date at Karaoke Dokie, and she said that she forgot her phone when we were already about 5 minutes away. He turned around and they sat in the driveway for like 5 minutes. He kept looking at her, wondering if she was every going to get up and get it.

Finally, he'd had enough. "Are you gonna go and get it?" He said.

"I thought you were!" she said, immediately defensive.

"It's _your _phone!" In response she just stared at him expectantly, knowing eventually he would give in. He did. Rolling his eyes, he got out of the car and went into the house. Jade's little sister Jessie was talking to their mom. They were both looking at a letter.

He knew Jade would get impatient quickly, so he headed down the hall to Jade's room. Her phone was there on her bed. He grabbed it, and caught sight of a picture in a frame. It was grainy because it had been printed out by Jade that day of Saturday detention. It was a picture of them taken on her phone of them after they kissed the very first time. Seeing it made him smile.

As he was walking out of the hallway, he heard his and Jade's name. He instinctively stopped walking and listened. He knew it was bad to eavesdrop, but you try not to when you hear your girlfriend's mother and sister talking about you.

" . . . but Jade's gonna think I'm like, I don't know, trying to steal Beck from her or something!" Jessie was saying.

"That's ridiculous Jessie!" Ms. West said.

"Not for Jade it's not! She thinks everything I do is to try and hurt her."

"If you're worried about this so much, then why did you try out in the first place?"

"I don't know. I didn't think I'd make it! Hollywood Arts is a place for super-talented people, and I'm just . . . Me." Jessie said, sounding sad.

"Honey, you're just as talented as Jade. Otherwise Helen wouldn't have accepted you. You can sing and you can act and you can dance, they would be crazy not to let you in."

"But Jade-" she started, but Ms. West interrupted her. "Will have to live with it. You're sister loves you a lot, I'm sure she'll be thrilled that you got in."

Jessie snorted, and it took all of Beck's self control not to do the same. Jessie walked away from the counter and plopped on the couch, folding her arms. "If she loves me so much, then how come she tried to drown me?" Jessie said.

"Honey, you guys were younger then."

"It was two years ago, Mom." Jessie said.

"That was still younger!" Ms. West exclaimed.

Jessie rolled her eyes. "But what if she gets mad at me?" she said, looking worried.

"Sweetie, you and Jade spend half your time mad at each other. It won't be a change." her mom said, speaking the truth. Jade often came to school having to vent about the latest thing Jessie had done to make her mad.

"But this is different." said Jessie. Before her mom could come up with a response, Beck decided that then was a good time to leave the hallway. When he entered the room, they immediately fell silent. He could tell from their expressions that they were both wondering the same thing: How much had he heard. Being an actor, he could pretend well, so he acted like he didn't know what their expressions meant. He pretended not to have heard anything.

"Hi Beck." Ms. West said, her voice higher than normal. Jessie grinned when she heard her mothers voice. She looked so much like Jade. She could be her twin.

He returned their greetings, and then left hurriedly.

Now, sitting in the car, didn't know what to do. He couldn't just pretend like he didn't know. Jade would be able to tell something was wrong. So he put on his poker face and just prayed that she wouldn't notice anything.

He gave Jade her phone, and in return she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks." she said. He grinned. He was finally getting through to her. But he still knew that he was the only one who she would be polite to.

He drove her to Karaoke Dokie, but he wouldn't have gone so fast if he knew what was going to happen to them when they got there.


	3. Chapter 3: Singing

When Jade entered Karaoke Dokie, she started looking around for Cat and Andre, hoping that Tori wouldn't be there. Of course, she was there. She groaned quietly. Beck looked at her, saw where she was looking, and rolled his eyes. He grabbed her by the hand and took her to the table. He sat beside her.

Andre of course, was pigging out on buffalo nuggets. Beck immediately joined him. Jade had no idea what was so amazing about the buffalo nuggets, but the guys thought they were amazing. After about a half minute, though, they were gone.

"Hey Beck, why do you look so nervous?" asked Tori. Fighting off the wave of jealousy that made Jade want to yell at Tori for looking at her boyfriend's face, she looked at Beck. She realized Tori was right. Beck did look nervous. His usually perfect features were creased with worry. His fingers were tapping like crazy on the table.

She put covered his moving hand with her own, and he stopped. "What's up with you?" She asked him.

"What's up? Nothing's up! I'm totally okay." he said, too quickly.

She was going to ask him again, when Cat interrupted her.

"Hey, Jade. Why are you on the stage?" she asked. At first, Jade thought Cat had entered a new level of insanity, but then she realized everyone was staring at the stage, their eyes wide. She turned.

It was her little sister. She groaned for the second time. She had been hoping she wouldn't have to tell anybody about her sister.

Jessie was getting on the stage with a blonde boy that Jade for some reason recognized. She remembered that he was Jessie's little "boyfriend," or whatever.

The MC was being his usual annoying self. "What are you two going to be singing tonight?" asked the guy.

"Just a Dream by Nelly," said Jessie, with a cute smile that made Jade want to puke.

"Allright! We're coming at you with Nelly's Just a-""Just play it!" said Jessie impatiently, in a startlingly Jade-like way. Jade knew that Jessie was just as impatient, if not more, as herself.

The music started, and the blonde boy began to sing. He wasn't terrible, she had to admit. But when Jessie started to sing, the most intense fury rose up in Jade, coloring her face and vision red. She had never noticed before, but her sister was talented. Anger and shock filled her. Her sister was _very_ good. Just as good as their mother.

When their song was over, no one at Jade's table clapped. They were all staring in shock at Jessie, who was getting down from the stage. Except for Beck. He had his closed, as if he had been dreading just this.


	4. Chapter 4: Anger

"Why didn't you tell me before?" yelled Jade furiously. They were in Beck's house now. They had left Karaoke Dokie in a hurry, but now they were in the RV and she had exploded into huge waves of Jade-standard fury.

"I didn't know how to say it." he said calmly, hoping she would stop yelling at him soon. He didn't enjoy this angry Jade.

"Obviously you did, because you just told me!" she screamed.

"Because you forced me too." he said.

She seemed tired of being mad at her. "How could she?" she said, walking around the RV, too vamped up to stay still.

"It's not her fault . . ." started Beck, but Jade interrupted her.

"It is too her fault! _She _tried out! _She _was good! She did _everything_, which means it is HER FAULT!"

"Why does it matter so much that she's in Hollywood Arts?" Beck asked exasperatedly.

"Because it's just another thing that she's better at me then!" Jade said, then covered her mouth. She had never told anyone, not even Beck, about the real reason she didn't like Jessie. Ever since they were little.

"What?" he asked her, standing up and coming to stand beside her. He put his hand between her shoulder blades. "What do you mean another thing? What is she better than you at?" He led her to his bed and sat down with her. He put his arms in a loose circle around her waste.

She didn't answer his question, she just stared down at her hands in embarrassment. He started to play with a strand of her hair, and whispered in her ear. "Tell me, please."

She complied. "Ever since we were little, whenever Jessie did something, it was always better than me. I won a talent show, but Jessie only got in the talent show and yet she got the prize. And when my parents got divorced," Beck could tell she was uncomfortable talking about this. "My dad wanted to have custody of my sister. But he wanted nothing to do with me."

When she turned towards him, he saw that she was blushing a furious scarlet red. He knew she had spilled something secret, and this happened so rarely with Jade that he didn't exactly know how to respond.

"Just because your parents pay more attention to Jessie than they do to you doesn't mean you're any less important than her." Beck said.

"Try telling my Dad that." said Jade, crossing her arms.

"You know somebody who doesn't think Jessie's more important than you?" he told her, slightly smiling.

"Who?" she said, still angry.

"Me." he said, pulling her face to his and kissing her as sweetly as he could. She was still for a minute, then kissed him back. Oddly, she drew back and laid her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and pressed her head to him, kissing the top of her head.


	5. Chapter 5: Meeting

On Monday, Tori entered Hollywood Arts intending to do something she had never done before. She went looking for Jade.

She thought she found her hanging around a bunch of freshman near a blank locker 2 away from Tori's. That by itself was weird, but what was even weirder was what she was wearing. She wore knee-high converse boots over bright blue skinny jeans, a white t-shirt, and had a cute backpack around her shoulder. But it looked so much like Jade in stature, body language, and hair length and color.

"Jade!" she said, walking up behind her. The girl ignored her. "Ugh, Jade!" Still no answer. Finally Tori tapped harder than she meant to on the girls shoulder.

"Ow." She said, turning around, looking angry but less angry then Tori had expected.

"What?" she asked.

"I want to talk about what happened last night." said Tori.

Instantly, the girl looked confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, you know what I'm talking about!" said Tori.

"No, I really don't, and who are you?" she said.

"Ugh, Jade, just tell me about the girl!" she exclaimed.

"Oh!" the girl said, understanding dawning on her face.

"Oh?" Tori said exasperatedly.

"You think I'm Jade." she said, grinning.

"Uh, yeah, who else would you be?" Tori said. "Unless . . ." suddenly Tori began to understand. "YOU'RE THE GIRL!" she shouted, then looked around. Several passersby were looking at her over her shoulders.

"Sssh!" said the girl. "I'm Jade's sister, Jessie." She held out her hand. Tori didn't shake it. Instead, her eyes grew from normal size to as wide as they could go. She stared at Jessie in almost stupefied silence. "Woah." Tori said.


	6. Chapter 6: Arguing

Later that day, Tori was still trying to digest the fact that Jade had a little sister. At first, she thought that Jade was playing some big prank on her. But Jade wouldn't be caught dead in the close Jessie was wearing, the highlights and black dye in Jade's hair were totally absent in the so-called Jessie's hair, and this girl was slightly shorter and didn't have Jade's . . . assets. Plus "Jessie" didn't have any facial piercings.

Tori couldn't wait to get to Sikowitz's class (the first class she had with Jade) to ask her about it. When she walked into the room, she saw Beck talking to Jade, who was her normal self, black clothes and all.

She approached them, and when Jade saw her the first thing she said was "Oh joy. Tori's here." Beck rolled his eyes but didn't reproach her.

"What's going on?" Tori half-yelled.

"I don't know, why don't you tell us." said Jade.

"Why were you walking around school this morning acting like you had a little sister?" Tori said.

Jade opened her mouth to answer, but the next words didn't come from her.

"She wasn't pretending." said a voice from behind her. Tori whipped around. There was Jessie, with a half-amused, half-annoyed expression on her face. Tori's head went from Jade to Jessie, Jade to Jessie. Over and over again. She had no idea what was going on.

"Why didn't you ever tell me you had a sister?" said Tori.

"Because that's something you tell a friend, and last time I checked we weren't friends." said Jade, glaring at Tori.

"Aren't you ever nice to people?" Jessie said angrily.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Jade said, in just as angry as a tone.

"Yeah, that's sort of why I asked." Jessie said.

"Oh great." said Beck, as the girls bickering turned into a full-blown argument.

"Oh great, what?" asked Tori.

"It's starting." said Beck, shaking his head and sitting down in defeat.

"What is?" Tori asked, totally confused now.

"The arguing." he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Does it happen often?" Tori asked him.

"Every time they're together." he said, shaking his head and grabbing his phone out of his pocket. She saw him to start to update his status on The Slap.

"Isn't there a way to stop it?" she asked. She didn't really want to see Jade rip Jessie's head off.

"Not unless you're a hypnotist." he said. "Once they start going at it, there's no way to stop it until they want to stop. They'll just keep arguing until somebody wins."

"How long does it last?" asked Tori, sitting down next to Beck.

"Depends on the day, they're mood, the subject of the argument."

"Oh." said Tori, shaking her head. It figured that Jade's little sister would be an arguer as well. She hoped to God that Jessie was stronger than she looked, or had a pistol within reach because otherwise Jade was going to rip her apart.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Sikowitz entered the classroom. Of course, the girls didn't stop fighting. They were now both yelling at the same time at the top of their lungs. Sikowitz stared at them oddly. He glanced at Beck, raised his eyebrows. Beck just gave him a look like, "I know what you mean."

Sikowitz just stared at the two girls as they continued fighting. Surprisingly, their fight hadn't turned physical yet.

Eventually, Jessie just yelled at Jade "OH PUT A DUCK IN IT!" and Jade gasped in alarm, seeming insulted. Tori didn't have any idea how that was even the remotest bit insulting, but Jade seemed to understand. She turned away from her sister, and turned to see Beck and Tori. Immediately, Tori felt scared. She was suddenly hyper-aware that Beck was sitting at the end of the row, with Tori next to him. There were no other seats next to him.

Jade seemed to realize this too, and her already angry face turned furious. She grabbed Tori by the nose and threw her to the ground. Then she smiled at sat down in her vacated seat.

Jessie leaned down to help Tori up. Tori clutched her nose, which had only been in so much pain when Cat hit her in the face for kissing Daniel.

"You just grabbed my nose!" she yelled at Jade, in a nasally way because she was still holding her nose.

"Deal with it." she said, then looking down at the floor, with a tiny smile on her face.

"If you three are done." said Sikowitz from the front of the class. Jessie sat with Tori in seats as far away from Beck and Jade as possible. Jessie looked sheepish; Tori knew that this was not the first impression Jessie wanted to make.

Sikowitz started right into his lecture, which Tori could not listen to because her nose was in so much pain. She had started considering it being broken, when something scared her.

"Good Gandhi!" yelled Sikowitz suddenly. Tori jumped (as did everybody else in the class) and stared at him in shock. He was whipping his head back and forth between Jade, who was polishing a pair of scissors, and Jessie, who had the strangest shy and scared look on her face.

"There are two of them?" he said. Jade looked up then. "Yeah, so what?" Jessie shot Jade an irritated glance.

"I apologize for my sister's . . . well I apologize for my sister." she told Sikowitz. "I'm Jessie, Jade's younger and better sister."

"Right." Jade snorted from the back of the class. Jessie glared at her with an extremely Jade-like look on her face, that made Tori want to hide underneath a rock.

"Why would your mother want two?" Sikowitz said. "I thought one gank was bad enough." Both West sisters said "Hey!" at the same time, sounding so similar it was almost impossible to tell the difference. Beck, meanwhile, was trying to stifle his laugh.

"That's what I said." said Tori, her hand still on her nose.

"What's wrong with your nose?" Sikowitz asked. "Other then what was wrong with it before." Jade laughed, and so did Jessie, but when Jessie saw Tori's expression she stopped laughing straight away.

"She fell." said Jade, smiling at Tori. Tori glared at her.

"I didn't fall! Jade grabbed my nose and threw me to the ground." Tori said.

"Well, do you need to go to the nurse?" Sikowitz asked.

"I think so." said Tori, nodding.

"Well then get out of here." he said. Tori grabbed her bag and got up, leaving out the back door of the classroom.


	7. Chapter 7: Scissors

It turned out Tori's nose wasn't broken, much to Beck's relief. He didn't want Jade getting in trouble. But what was broken was the already feeble relationship between Jade and Jessie. They weren't speaking to each other at all. The rest of that day Beck, Jade, Tori, and Jessie had all their classes together. Jade, Tori, and Jessie never spoke to each other. Beck tried to be the peacemaker, but none of them would see reason. The good thing was that Tori was taking Jessie's side, so at least she would have someone. He cared about Jade's sister as if she were his own.

At lunch that day, Beck, Andre, and Jade sat at one side of the café, while Tori, Jessie, Robbie, and Cat sat on the complete other side. Jade and Jessie kept glaring at each other from their tables. He'd only seen Jade this mad once, when Sinjin had bent her new scissors. But that had only lasted a couple of hours, because the next time he saw her she was happy, or at least as happy as Jade ever got.

This time though, it seemed like Jade just wouldn't cool down. No matter how many times he tried to get her to stop being mad, she just flared up and started complaining about Jessie. Beck was nervous for what would happen when they were both at home without anyone but their mom to stop them from fighting. So, he invited Jade to his house just to give Jessie some time to hide.

When they got to his RV, Jade sat down on Beck's bed and crossed her arms tightly, a cute pouting look on her face.

"Hey, cheer up, all right?" Beck told her, sitting down to next to her and nudging her with his elbow. Her crossed arms loosened a little subconsciously, but her stubborn nature wouldn't let her go down without a fight. She tightened them again.

"It does nothing to be mad." he told her jokingly. "Because when you're mad you don't get to do this." then he leaned in and kissed her.

She didn't kiss him back for a moment, then she did, but not as passionately as he was used to. That's when he knew how angry she was. Usually it didn't take much to get her in a romantic mood, but today she was being extremely stubborn.

"You know what you need?" he asked her, leaning away from her. She frowned slightly when he pulled away, so he knew she wasn't too mad.

"A new sister?" she said. He rolled his eyes, but he had been expecting her to say something like that.

"No. This." He got up from the bed and headed over to his fish tank. He grabbed a black box from underneath it, and walked back to where she sat, confused.

"I was gonna wait until Valentine's Day to give you this, but I think today is a better day." At the word's "Valentine's Day" her face darkened, but he wasn't worried about it. He knew that the present inside the box would cheer her up.

He handed it to her, and as she opened it, she gasped and immediately smiled.

"Oh my God!" she said. "Shut up!" she almost yelled as she pulled out a new pair of scissors, exactly like the ones Sinjin bent. "Beck, I can't believe this!" she exclaimed. He smiled when he saw her happy face. He knew that his present would have made her cheerful.

"I love you." she told him, in a sweet voice he didn't hear too often.

"I love you too." he told her, leaning in for another kiss. Unlike last time, she actually kissed him back.


	8. Chapter 8: Too Far Gone

When Beck dropped Jade off at her house that night, ,she was so elated about his present that she didn't even think about Jessie until she walked into the house and heard her voice coming from the living room. She rolled her eyes; if only Jessie could realize how annoying her voice was, then maybe she would stop talking.

There was no way to get to Jade's room without going through the living room, so Jade was going to have to see her sister unless she wanted to sit in the entrance all night. She walked into the room to see Jessie and a bunch of her friends from Sherwood High, and a couple freshman she recognized from Hollywood Arts. Jessie was leaning against the arm of the couch, with her legs over a blonde boys lap. She remembered that blonde boy as the one Jessie had sang with at Karaoke Dokie.

They were eating popcorn and making fun of some stupid show on the Dingo channel, all debating about what to do for Jessie's profile video on the Slap. It all made her sick. Hollywood Arts was her school, not Jessie's, so why should Jessie get to be in it.

As far as Jade was concerned, Jade was more talented than Jessie. I mean sure, Jessie could sing, but when it all came down to it, she just wasn't as good of an actor as Jade. Not saying that she couldn't act, it was just that Jade was a lot better.

However, when Jade was on good terms with her sister (which hardly ever happened) she had to admit that she wasn't the worst sister in the world. She _could _be related to Trina . . .

Plus, Jade also felt guilty for some of the things she had said to her sister in their argument that day in Sikowitz's class. She had purposely attacked some of Jessie's biggest insecurities, and had tried as hard as possible to get under her skin. Jessie, meanwhile, had been arguing half-heartedly, not really trying to hurt Jade.

This was one of the things that annoyed her most about Jessie. Jade knew that Jessie was a very good arguer and knew how to insult somebody. She had seen her do it many times, back when they both were in middle school. But whenever Jessie was arguing with Jade, it was like she stopped arguing to her full potential. No matter how badly Jade hurt her, she never retaliated to the full extent. It was like she didn't want to offend Jade, even though Jade sure as heck didn't care about offending her.

This annoying tendency of hers made arguing with her so much less . . . satisfying. She didn't want to argue with someone who didn't want to try hard.

And the worst part was, Jade knew that Jessie was right. As siblings, they were supposed to look out for each other. But this was pretty hard when they knew exactly how to press the others buttons. Jessie was often a much better sister to Jade then Jade had ever been or had a hope of being.

Like the time Jade had gotten her tonsils out, Jessie had taken care of her all weekend. But the next week when Jessie had pneumonia, Jade had abandoned her to go out with her friends. But Jessie hadn't complained about it. Never, not then and not now.

Or when Jade had broken up with Beck for that short period of time. While Jade had cried her eyes out and was depressed, Jessie did Jade's homework, chores, and had comforted her. But Jade had done nothing for Jessie when one of Jessie's friends had died.

Jessie had done so many things for Jade and had never asked for or received anything in return. She was a great person, but Jade still found reasons to hate her sister.

Throughout this whole thinking process, Jade hadn't moved a muscle. She was still standing there awkwardly in the doorway from the entrance, neither in the entrance nor the living room. Finally, Jessie noticed this and then her previously happy expression darkened into a cold, hard face that Jade didn't see often.

"Can I help you?" asked Jessie, in a voice that was neither polite or offensive, just empty words that sent a chill through Jade's spine. Her sister was one of the only people who could truly scare her.

"There's nothing that you can do for me, that I can't do for myself." said Jade, then immediately regretted it. Hadn't she just been thinking about how much better of a person Jessie was? Oh well, it seemed like Jade would never be able to keep her mouth shut.

As for Jessie, she showed no signs of being hurt by Jades comment. Instead, she didn't answer Jade, and went back to ignoring her, throwing herself back into her friends conversation with a little too much enthusiasm. But Jade could still slightly see the cold, hardness in the eyes that were so much like hers. And that's how Jade knew that maybe this time they wouldn't be able to patch things together between them.

That thought actually made Jade sad.


	9. Chapter 9: Persuasion

The next day Jessie and her sister didn't talk. They stayed in their rooms until Beck came to pick them up for school. In the car, nobody said a word. You could feel the awkwardness and hostility as if it were a tangible thing. Beck was afraid to say anything; he felt sure that if he did he was going to get yelled at by one of them.

Thank goodness the ride to Hollywood Arts was a short one, by the time they were halfway there Jessie didn't think she could stand one more minute with Jade. It had seemed like their short, seemingly harmless confrontation the night before had cut them both deeper than any argument they had had.

When they got to the school, Jessie couldn't get out of the car and away from Jade fast enough. She dreaded 2nd period, when she would have to deal with Jade again. But, she had first hour with Beck and their teacher had just rearranged seats, placing her next to him.

She knew Beck to be a peacemaker, so she was sure he would try to talk her into apologizing to Jade. But this time, she wasn't doing it. Too many times had she swallowed her pride and tried to be the bigger person, too many times had she set herself up only for Jade to break her again. It was Jade's turn, and if she wasn't going to take her turn, then Jade could consider their relationship over.

She walked into her Creative Script Writing class expecting bad. What she got was worse.

From the moment she sat down in her seat, Beck began talking. "I think you should try to make up with Jade." was the very first thing he said to her. No greeting, no transitional stage. He just came right out and said it. She didn't know what she had been expecting, but it wasn't this. So, she didn't really know what to say. So of course, like an idiot, she said "What?"

He said it again, enunciating every word as if she were a mental unstable person. "I think you should try to make up with Jade."

Before she could stop herself, she got angry with Beck. "Why doesn't Jade try to fix things herself for once. Doesn't it bug you how she always argues and insults you? How she never apologizes unless you force her to? Doesn't it make you the slightest bit angry? I apologize to her all the time, even when I haven't done anything. It's her turn to be the bigger person." She crossed her arms and tried to look like she was paying attention to the teacher, who was babbling on about iambic pentameter and Shakespeare's "genius" use of it.

"Jade can be . . . stubborn." Beck said simply.

"Gee thanks, Captain Obvious. I would have never guessed that." she said, rolling her eyes.

He chuckled once; being Jade's boyfriend he was obviously used to sarcasm. Good thing to, because talking to Jessie guaranteed multiple sarcastic comments.

"Seriously though, you have to talk to her. It's the best thing to do."

"But I always do the best thing!" she uncrossed her arms and turned slightly toward him. "And besides, she should have to talk to me. All I did was get excepted into a school. This whole argument is pointless and I know it's stupid, but I just don't want to always have to act like the guilty party. Jade did things wrong to, and I'm not going to just let that go again and apologize for having talent."

"Miss West, Mr. Oliver, do you have something you would like to tell the rest of the class?" Mr. Gradstein asked them, raising his eyebrows at the two of them.

"Um, no sir." said Beck, looking down at his notebook, which had nothing written on it and slightly grinning.

"And you, Miss West? Do you have something to share?"

"Um, no." Jessie said, blushing a furious red.

Beck didn't bring it up the rest of class, but Jessie could almost hear the gears turning in his head, and knew he was thinking of something. Whatever it was, she knew she wouldn't like it.


End file.
